Backchannel is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks.
How can you use it?
Teachers/Presenters can encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs.
Teachers can show movies or present content with instant feedback from students to make adjustments and to address the needs of their learners.
Students must first be taught how to properly utilize a backchannel procedure in the classroom.
Create several small groups in the classroom, each having their own discussion and each group has a laptop. Each group could have a recorder who is responsible for sharing their discussion in the backchannel. All groups will be reading the postings, thus allowing for "cross-fertilization" of the groups.
"HotSeat": Students post questions during the presentation and the teacher puts themselves in the hotseat every 5-10 minutes or so to answer questions and address comments posted.
Notetaking: Students can take their notes during a class in the backchannel. This provides an electronic (and thus searchable) set of notes for the student. Moreover, students can read and use each other’s notes more easily. You might even select two or three students each day to be official class note-takers, freeing other students up for more engagement in class. Maybe select student duties based on their learning styles.
Helping one Another: Keep in mind that there are several kinds of backchannel conversations, including student-to-student conversations. When one student poses a question on the backchannel, another student might very well answer that question before the instructor can get to it. This kind of peer instruction is a common use of clickers, and it can work well in the backchannel, too.
The use of backchannel is useful in any content area - maybe more history or science - and for anygrade level that can listen, read, type and process information quickly.
Why would you use it?
PRO: Connect with your audience in real time
CON: Listeners (students) will spend more time focusing on the chatting and not on the material presented.
CON: Students can be drawn off task extremely easy.
Use a site such as www.chatzy.com for your backchanneling needs. Below are reasons (pros) to use Chatzy as your tool:
PRO: Chatzy has no registration steps - your friends can join instantly
PRO: Chatzy is free and has no popup ads
PRO: Chatzy does not require any installation on your computer (= no spyware)
PRO: Chatzy works on any PC, with any language and through corporate firewalls
Backchanneling
What is it?
How can you use it?
Why would you use it?
References